What has happened to comedy? I believe that the test of a comedian's worth is how he or she can tell a joke or a humorous story without resorting to off-color material. Anybody can be funny to an eleven year old audience with fart jokes. It takes a competent funny person to appeal to an audience of adults. with intelligent funny material.
I have a group of stand-up comedians that I admire and I always try to view or hear their routines whenever I can. Therefore, recently I heard an announcement for a "humor night" on one of the TV stations. The program would consist of five or six stand-up comedians doing their bits. Two of the comedians were to be my favorites, John Pinette and Kathleen Madigan. I immediately set up my DVR to tape the show, in case I missed it.
When I viewed the tape I was surprised at what I saw. First, there was a sophomoric routine by Martin Short.. extremely unfunny, unless you were ten years old. Then there were 5 minute skits by several comedians. Tom Papa tried to be funny... he failed miserably. Greg Geraldo, who I have heard on XM radio as a funny guy.. seriously bombed. A couple of other guys also bombed.
But, I had set up to tape the show because I would be able to see two of my favorites: Kathleen Madigan and John Pinette. Kathleen was a disappointment. Not like her routines that I look forward to on XM radio's Laugh USA. (But still, I will keep my link to her facebook and twitter accounts.)
John Pinette was kind of funny, but not at his best. Not one : I say "nay, nay" during the bit.
Martin Short was, how should I say this delicately, LOUSY!
I was very disappointed. But, I will not give up on my favorites, Madigan and Pinette. Surely, their routines were cut down to fit into the show's time frame. They had to be.. they are much funnier than they showed themselves on this show.
While we are on the subject, let me make a prediction... Conan will bomb. Sorry.. but I feel that Conan is not a funny man.. not as funny as Jay Leno and definitely nowhere as funny as Johnny Carson or Jack Paar or Steve Allen. The Tonite Show has survived for years because some of the writing was funny.. but (in my opinion) Conan's writers are "out to lunch".
Since the writers' strike, Leno's monologues suffered from a dearth of funny material. If he didn't have Paris or Michael or some Senator or other to make fun of, he would not have anything to say. We did like his "Headlines" schtick. If his show contained nothing but that, he would have been good. Unfortunately, he also had pretty young "airhead" stars to interview.. most of whom could not carry on an intelligent conversation.
Why can't the Tonight Show go back to the Jack Paar mode.. where everything was live and it was exciting to watch... you never knew what was going to be said next.. !!!
Oh well, perhaps we should just learn to be senior citizens and go to bed at 9 pm. Or, at least, watch our netflix movies instead of wasting our time with late network shows.
4 comments:
Gee, pop, it may be you're looking for something that doesn't have mass appeal anymore.
You might like Craig Fergusson, but he does tend to be a little silly. Still, his show seems a lot more Jack Parr-like than most of the contemporary late-night shows.
Leno will be back on in a few more weeks on NBC at 10 o'clock. Maybe they're shifting him forward so his aging audience can stay up for him.
I'm sorry if I was a little grouchy on this subject, but I was very disappointed in the humor show. Madigan and Pinette are my favorite stand-up comics (as I said) and it seemed to me as though they might have given some of their usual funny routines, but then the routines were cut down so that Martin Short could get in his dumb routines. (I'm sorry, I find everything that Martin Short does as unfunny. I realize that I'm probably stuck in "the old days" when it comes to comedy.
You probably guess that I seldom find anything funny on SNL. I used to watch it several years ago and found it to be very original and funny. Outside of some Palin humor, I don't find myself laughing hardly at all when I attempt to watch the show these days.
Is Craig Fergusson the guy from Britain? If so, I kind of like some of the off-beat stuff that he does.
I hope that Leno gets some new writers for his new show or does some of the writing himself. He couldn't do his own writing on the Late Show because of the Writers' Union rules.
Do you think that I like Leno because he is from Massachusetts? (I like all of those Massachusetts comedians like Barney Frank, Ed Markey, and Ted Kennedy. The Republican guys seem like sourpusses to me.)
Yes, son, I'm getting old and set in my ways when it comes to comedy. I find some of the joke stations on XM to be obnoxious, so I keep my XM set to 151, Laugh USA.
Mary's granddaughter was not the girl from Big Dan's, she was miles away from New Bedford at that time. This post has caused much confusion in her family and I'd appreciate this false information be removed.
Thank you
As I said in another blog entry comment today, I was wrong about Mary's granddaughter being involved in the Big Dan case. I'm sorry for any trouble it caused.
Joe Vaughan
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